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- The Raised Carrot #001
The Raised Carrot #001
The Food Not Bombs Boston Newsletter
Food Not Bombs Boston
May 13, 2025
The Raised Carrot #001
The Food Not Bombs Boston Newsletter
Welcome to the new Food Not Bombs Newsletter! We hope this will be a good way for folks to keep up with everything we’re doing and learn about the things we care about. In this issue we’re discussing past and upcoming events, and the history of International Workers Day which took place on May 1st. We also have a shout out to the upcoming Malden chapter of Food Not Bombs, info about the Roxbury chapter, and some helpful links.
Please enjoy the first issue of our new newsletter, and look forward to our next monthly release. In the future we have plans to share recipes, foraging tips, news about local events and more!
Table of Contents
Join Us For Our Weekly Free Meal
There are a few Food Not Bombs chapters in the Boston area, come join us at one of them for a free meal! The best way to get involved with us is by coming to one of our serves. You can help us distribute food and goods or just enjoy a good meal and get to know us. There is no need to sign up in advance, and everyone is welcome! If you aren’t able to attend our serves then you can also send an email to your local chapter and ask what you can do to help out.
Boston Food Not Bombs serves a meal in Cambridge every Saturday 1-3 PM at James Cronin Park.
Email: [email protected] Instagram: @bostonfoodnotbombs Donate: ko-fi.com/food-not-bombs-boston
Roxbury Food Not Bombs serves a meal by Nubian Station every Sunday 1-3 PM at Justice Edward O. Gourdin Veterans Memorial Park.
Email: [email protected] Instagram: @roxburyfoodnotbombs Donate: ko-fi.com/roxburyfnb
Waltham Food Not Bombs serves a meal in Waltham every Sunday 2-4 PM at Waltham Common, and also distributes free groceries every Wednesday 6 PM in a lot by 240 Moody Street.
Email: [email protected] Instagram: @foodnotbombswaltham Donate: Paypal [email protected]
Malden Food Not Bombs is coming soon near Malden Center.
Events
A photo of our table at the Wake Up the Earth festival
Wake Up The Earth - May 3rd
We tabled at Wake Up the Earth recently and had a great time! WUTE was full of energy and love for the environment and community. It's always great to meet other orgs and mutual aid groups! Thanks to everyone who stopped by and talked!
Boston Dyke March - June 14th 6-9PM
Once again we will be tabling at Dyke March sharing queer rage and joy. We will have snacks, patches, and zines to distro!
Dyke March is a masks required event, the Dyke patrol will have extras and we will as well!
Malden Pride - June 22nd 12-4PM
This year for the first time we will be tabling at Malden Pride with members of newly formed Malden Food Not Bombs.
Surprise! The first community meal for the Malden Food Not Bombs chapter will be June 21st, the day before Malden Pride. They are planning on serving on the first and third Saturdays every month near Malden Center. If you would like to be involved with Malden FNB please reach out to us and we will put you in contact.
Malden Pride is not a masks required event but we will have extra to share!
International Workers’ Day or May Day
The Holiday
On May 1st we wish a happy May Day to all workers of the world! May Day, or International Workers’ Day, celebrates the victories of labor movements throughout history, especially the eight-hour work day.
If you have to work to survive, then May Day celebrates your history. “Workers” are not only large, white men with hammers! Whether you are a teacher, server, or computer programmer, you too are a part of the working class. You have benefited from labor’s past struggles, and you can join in the fight for future victories.
The History
In the late 1800s, most workers, including children, were expected to work up to 16 hours a day under horrific conditions. United by the radical idea that they deserved better, they organized into unions to fight for their rights. In America, immigrant workers brought the ideas of socialism and anarchism from around the world, ideas that would inspire and shape the labor movement.
On May 1st, 1867, the workers of Chicago, Illinois celebrated new state legislation guaranteeing them an eight hour day; however, the bosses had no intention of honoring the law, and the state did nothing to enforce it, leaving the workers to continue to suffer at the hands of the rich. When the state sent police to crush the resulting protests, the workers learned they could not expect reform from a government that would always side with their bosses.
In 1886 a more radical labor movement arose. The Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Assemblies, an organization of unions across America, demanded that workers be given the shorter workday by May 1st, 1886, or they would exercise their most powerful tool: the general strike. When the day came and the owners of capital did nothing, hundreds of thousands of workers, across industries and cities, went on strike. Eighty thousand people rallied in the streets of Chicago alone. As the strikes persisted, tensions between the wealthy and the strikers grew until once again the state sent police to shut down the movement.
On May 3rd the police interrupted a public meeting of workers from the Lumber Shovers’ Union in Chicago. They cracked down with guns and batons. Many workers were injured, and one was killed.
Outraged by the police violence, anarchist organizers put out a call in Arbeiter-Zeitung (“The Workers’ Newspaper”) to rally the next day in Haymarket Square. Thousands gathered peacefully to listen to anarchist migrant workers speak out in favor of the eight-hour work day and against the violence of the state. The mayor of Chicago attended the start of the rally, but went home early after concluding there would be no violence. He informed police captain John Bonfield that the police should disperse. But Bonfield did not disperse his officers. Instead, as the last speech came to a close, two hundred police officers descended on the protesters. A bomb was thrown, killing a police officer, and the police started firing indiscriminately. Seven more officers were killed in the gunfire alongside countless workers, including those injured survivors who did not seek medical attention for fear of the police.
Through a series of unlawful raids, anarchists and activists were rounded up and detained. They were stolen away from their meeting halls and homes, ripped from the arms of their friends and families. The police never found a guilty party, and to this day it is unknown who threw the bomb. Workers at the time contended it may have been someone from the Pinkerton agency, well- known for infiltrating labor groups and inciting violence. Whoever it was never saw a trial.
Instead, the police selected eight organizers to charge as accessories to murder. Only two of the eight were even present when the bomb went off: two speakers who were following police orders to step down from the stage at the time. The prosecution hand selected a jury of wealthy business owners for the trial and told them, “Anarchy is on trial. These men have been selected, picked out by the Grand Jury, and indicted because they were leaders. They are no more guilty than the thousands who follow them. Gentlemen of the jury, convict these men, make examples of them, hang them and you save our institutions.” The jury found them guilty.
Oscar Neebe was sentenced to fifteen years in prison. Michael Schwab and Sam Fielden were sentenced to life in prison. August Spies, Albert Parsons, Adolph Fischer, and George Engel were hanged. Louis Lingg committed suicide in prison before he could be hanged. Six hundred thousand people attended the funeral of the five men murdered by the state. They are remembered as the Haymarket Martyrs.
Despite what the prosecutor told his jury, their deaths did not save “[their] institutions”. On May 1st, 1890, the first International Workers’ Day marked a new round of strikes and the labor movement marched on winning victory after victory. Union by union, industry by industry, the workers of America won the eight-hour day they demanded. By 1938 the Fair Labor Standards Act guaranteed the eight-hour work day with additional pay for overtime work for all Americans.
The eight-hour day and other improvements were not a generous gift from benevolent bosses, or an inevitable process of state reform – they were the result of hard fought battles. Our ancestors worked and fought and died to secure the best for themselves, for each other, and for us.
The Future
The workers of the movement for the eight-hour day would sing, “Eight hours for work. Eight hours for rest. Eight hours for what we will.” If you work full time in our modern day then you know the promises of their song go unfulfilled. While work today is a vast improvement over the conditions they fought against, we still don’t have eight hours for rest and eight hours for leisure. Capitalists extract every second from us that they can. Even if you are lucky enough to never be “asked” to work more than eight hours in a day. you are expected to freely give your time to commute. You need to eat, clean, exercise, and shop just to survive and you must sacrifice your leisure time and hard-earned money to do so. Many have to sacrifice their sleep to do everything they need to in a day.
And the problems with modern labor are not constrained to time. Some workers are expected to demean themselves for customers, some face irregular schedules designed by uncaring bosses, and some aren’t paid enough to survive. If you take a moment to think about it, you probably are distinctly aware of how your job could be better.
It is not wishful thinking or ungrateful to focus on these issues; in fact it is fully necessary. As the labor movements of history learned the hard way, reform will not be given to us for free.
If we want a better world then we need to fight for it. If you can imagine a better world that you want to fight for, then you should get organized! Join a union if you can, or start a union in your workplace if there isn’t one.
Starting a union is a daunting task but the first step is easy: just talk to your coworkers. Listen to their concerns and tell them that they deserve better. Let them know that you can better achieve your goals by working together. Even if your organizing never goes any further than that, supporting each other is essential for building any kind of labor movement.
If your union needs additional support consider reaching out to Food Not Bombs. We can help run events or share food with your members. There are legal limits to unions protesting their workplaces that don’t apply to outside organizations, and we would love to be that outside organization!
Until all workers control their workplaces there will always be labor issues to fight for, so in celebration of this May Day, join the fight!
Support Food Not Bombs Boston
All of the food, clothes, and supplies that we are able to share with our neighbors come from donations. If you have anything you can donate to help us out you can send us an email or DM our Instagram! We also use financial donations to fund purchasing high demand items like underwear, socks and soap. If you are able to give, we would greatly appreciate a monthly or one-time donation.
Also check out Roxbury Food Not Bombs
Roxbury Food Not Bombs is the younger sister organization of Boston Food Not Bombs, for folks south of the Charles River. Since October 2024, we’ve served vegan food for our neighbors, as well as distributing clothes, harm reduction materials, and literature. Like Boston FNB, we are not a charity where the rich give to the poor, we are a mutual aid organization standing in solidarity with, and providing for, all who have been harmed by capitalism and our government.
We would love to see you at our free meal serve every Sunday from 1 - 3 pm in Justice Edward O. Gourdin Veterans Memorial Park, right by Nubian Station! If you want to get involved, coming to our serve is the best way to get started – there is no need to sign up, you are welcome to just show up!
Follow what we’re doing on Instagram at @roxburyfoodnotbombs or email us at [email protected]. You can make a one-time or recurring donation on ko-fi. We also appreciate donations of vegan food, clothing, and hygiene supplies.
Links
